by Yukitsu
Disclaimer: Eerie Queerie is not mine. Nope, not at all.
Thank you for the reviews you left for the first chapter! I felt so happy when I got feedback from the readers. And yes, I agree, Kanau is so cute and adorable, and I want to give him credit and even more character in this fic. XD I hope I write him well. You guys WILL tell me if I'm making him out of character, right?
To the people who asked about the pairing: It's mighty obvious, by this chapter. Even the plot's direction, too, though I hope I execute it well. Lol.
Chapter Two:
Familiarity.
There was something eerily familiar with the way Mikuni buttoned up the uniform for Kanau, as if something similar had happened to him with the same set of hands even before he had fallen off the bridge and died.
Sixteen years was too long a time for him to remember anything of his life. Except for his beloved Senpai, everything else was fuzzy and covered in haze -- he heard, once, from a fellow ghost, that people tended to bury bad memories.
"Cute," the priest said delightedly, as he smoothed out the wrinkles and adjusted the collar of the schoolgirl attire. Kanau dismissed the idea, since only his Senpai could have done that to him in the past and his Senpai had dark hair. "Very cute. You have nice legs for a boy."
Kanau swore he didn't just feel himself blush at the lewd compliment. Rather, the heat that tinged his cheek was because Mikuni had oh-so-playfully patted his rump. "What are you doing?" he demanded rather shrilly, instead, when the priest lifted the skirt of the already short sailor uniform and tugged at his boxers.
"Hush. I'm putting this on," Mikuni said by way of explanation, finishing what he was working on and stepping back with a satisfied smirk. Vaguely, Kanau felt something furry brush against his legs, and he bristled at the sight of the fox's tail hanging from his bum. "Since you absolutely refused to wear the lace panties that went with this, you get the tail instead."
"I suppose you have ears to go with it too?" Kanau snapped back, taking a step away from the priest who had suddenly looked devilishly mischievous.
"You know me too well, Kanau-chan," Mikuni purred, pulling a pair of fluffy, furry foxears from under his sleeve. Kanau could only sigh in resignation and let the albino tuck it around his head.
For a moment, the ghost wondered why the priest was being touchy the past few days. Ever since the Playstation invaded the den, the albino had started giving him odd looks that the ghost couldn't quite figure out. He was seeing more and more of Mikuni – granted, they did live in the same place, but the priest left him alone most of the time – though he didn't know why.
"I'll go make dinner," Kanau said quietly, finally deciding to take his leave. Mikuni, however, had other ideas.
"Let me look you over first, Kanau-chan," he said, already twirling Kanau around by the shoulders. "I thought so. You do look better in black." Without so much as a good bye, Mikuni had prodded him out of his room. He nearly tripped over the strip of metal keeping the sliding doors upright. "I'll be down shortly."
Confused, dazed from the twirl, and boggled by the comment, Kanau stared up at the door to the priest's quarters in shock. "Crazy priest and his crazy ideas," he muttered after a while, tugging the skirt down and making his way to the kitchen. He sincerely hoped Mitsuo and Hasanuma weren't around.
"Better in black, hm," he murmured off-handedly to himself as he crossed the hallways leading from the living quarter to the kitchen. His Senpai had insisted, back then, that he looked better in white. But… the man was unreliable when it came to tastes. Several years following the man around had proved that to him.
"Sometimes, it's surprising how you can tolerate Mikuni dressing you up," a voice commented from behind him, tone more curious than amused. Kanau paused and swiveled his head a few degrees to look at the taller teenager.
"I was a member of the Drama Club," the ghost said by way of an explanation, resuming his pace to the kitchen without bothering to wait for the other's response. He hadn't lied about that, before, when he had first met their blond friend. Said blond was rummaging around the pantry when he stepped in, and Kanau didn't bother to ask why. As long as he didn't make a mess, it was fine. He heard Hasunuma's light steps as he made his way to his lover, and almost laughed when Hasunuma called Mitsuo his 'darling wife' in jest.
Kanau had put a pot of water on boil and was in the process of chopping up some carrots when Mitsuo turned to look and greet him. There was a clatter of something the trio recognized as a set of pots, and Kanau winced as one rolled by his feet with a dent on its side.
"Uwah!" Mitsuo exclaimed with a furious blush, "I'm sorry, you just startled me. You look like a school girl."
"No, he doesn't because--" Ignoring the priest who had come up behind him, Kanau bent over to pick the pot up, but stopped halfway when Hasunuma and Mitsuo's eyes widened.
"Err…." Oh. Calmly, as if he hadn't just flashed the albino, Kanau straightened up and examined the dent the fall had made on the pot.
"—I'm not too interested in girls." Mikuni finally finished, all smiles and cool.
"Crossdressing boys, however, are other matters entirely," Hasanuma added for him. Kanau glanced at the priest in time to see him smile languidly, then turned away with his face beet red. Mitsuo was probably also blushing…. He couldn't believe this; Mikuni and Hasanuma talking as if he wasn't in the room. He was a ghost, but because they could actually see him, they weren't excused like his Senpai had been. His Senpai, who hadn't felt even a bit of his presence during the funeral of his pale, waterlogged body.
He was a good friend. Kanau gently placed the pot on the counter, as if anything more forceful would shatter the thing. Shattered. Like so many things in his non-life.
I wish I could have helped him. I really regret that he's gone. The carrots weren't being sliced in equal parts. Kanau let the buzz of the other people in the room wash over him in idle waves, hearing everything but understanding nothing. It wasn't like they noticed he was there anyway, with the way they talked.
I hope he's happy where ever he is.
"Kanau, you're bleeding!" Mitsuo's exclamation and his name being called snapped Kanau out of his thoughts. He stared at his index finger with morbid fascination, watching the blood trickled down the thin and deep slice along its side. He hadn't seen his own blood for so long, that the mere idea of cutting himself up seemed surreal.
Hasunuma and Mikuni finally stopped they word rallying to look at him. Before Kanau had the opportunity to wipe the blood away, the priest had already done it for him, Mitsuo had gotten the medikit out, and Hasunuma was listing stuff about how to prevent tetanus.
"I'll be fine," Kanau said, blinking at the fuss. "I'm a ghost, remember? I can't die again."
"You can," Mikuni interjected, "Especially in this sanctuary. You have to be careful, Kanau-chan. You're not much different from a mortal here." The priest had taken it on himself to treat his cut, taking the kit from Mitsuo and dabbing at the wound with cotton soaked in peroxide. Kanau winced, and marveled at the alien feeling. He could almost remember feeling alive again.
"Will I move on if I die as a ghost?"
"Worse," Mikuni replied curtly, "You will cease to exist."
Cease to exist…? But he was already gone, wasn't he? The grey-eyed ghost smiled a little sadly at the thought, and looked away, pulling the newly wrapped finger away from the albino priest. "Thank you," he said automatically, vaguely wondering at why the priest was being nice. He put it down to concern for his housemaid and personal mannequin.
"Kanau, go play in the den. I'll finish dinner for us," Mitsuo said, all smiles and brightness. He was probably trying to lighten the atmosphere up, which was starting to hang heavy like during the day he was to be buried. Funny, the things that crossed his mind at the oddest of times.
"I'm fine," he shrugged, going back to the carrots he had been hacking away at before. It was just a cut… he didn't know whether to be happy at the concern or not. How ungrateful, he thought to himself, mustering a brighter smile for the sunny blond in reassurance. "You and Hasunuma should, though," he added, "Maybe you can bring Mikuni with you."
"I don't play kid's games," the priest retorted lightly, shifting around for his cigarettes.
"Because you play with kids, period," Hasunuma added. There was a puff of air accompanying Hasunuma's coughs, and Kanau distantly smelt cigarette smoke.
"Well, either way, can you guys leave me to my cooking?" Kanau finally demanded, rounding in on the trio with his hands on his hips. It would convince them he was all right – and he was, but he knew how Mitsuo always fussed around the most trivial of things – and it would also empty the place to leave him at peace. He needed silence.
Mitsuo and Hasunuma grinned at him and unresistingly made their way out. Mikuni lingered a while longer, seemingly petulant about joining the couple outside. Happy that the two troublemakers were out of the way, and unnoticing of the priest in the area, Kanau turned back to what he was doing.
"I'll be in my room, Kanau-kun," Mikuni said, startling the young ghost into nearly cutting himself again. Kanau turned to look at him, mouth agape and blinking rapidly. Mikuni raised an eyebrow in question, but didn't wait for an answer before leaving the kitchen with an elegant about-face.
Kanau-kun. There it was again, that tingling sense of déjà vu that always came with Mikuni doing something odd. His Senpai had never called him that, but someone else once did. Vaguely, Kanau wondered who.
4:07 PM 4/22/2005